Instructions on the use of mysql functions concat and group_concat

select concat(cast(int_col as char), char_col);

mysql> select concat(',',name,',') from `user`;
+--------------------------+| concat(',',fdipzone,',') |
+--------------------------+| ,fdipzone,               |
+--------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select concat(null,name) from `user`;
+-------------------+| concat(null,name) |
+-------------------+| NULL              |
+-------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select concat_ws(',',country_code,phone,region) from `user`;
+------------------------------------------+| concat_ws(',',country_code,phone,region) |
+------------------------------------------+| 86,13794830550,GZ                        |
+------------------------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select concat_ws(null,country_code,phone,region) from `user`;
+-------------------------------------------+| concat_ws(null,country_code,phone,region) |
+-------------------------------------------+| NULL                                      |
+-------------------------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select concat_ws(',',country_code,phone,null,region,'',grade) from `user`;
+--------------------------------------------------------+| concat_ws(',',country_code,phone,null,region,'',grade) |
+--------------------------------------------------------+| 86,13794830550,GZ,,200                                 |
+--------------------------------------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

CREATE TABLE `article_in_category` ( `id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `article_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL, `category_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), KEY `article_id_INDEX` (`article_id`), KEY `category_id_INDEX` (`category_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

INSERT INTO `article_in_category` (`id`, `article_id`, `category_id`) VALUES (NULL, '1', '1'),
(NULL, '1', '2'),(NULL, '1', '3'),(NULL, '2', '4'),(NULL, '2', '3'),(NULL, '2', '5'),(NULL, '3', '1'),
(NULL, '3', '5'),(NULL, '3', '6'),(NULL, '4', '8');

mysql> select * from `article_in_category`;
+----+------------+-------------+| id | article_id | category_id |
+----+------------+-------------+|  1 |          1 |           1 |
|  2 |          1 |           2 |
|  3 |          1 |           3 |
|  4 |          2 |           4 |
|  5 |          2 |           3 |
|  6 |          2 |           5 |
|  7 |          3 |           1 |
|  8 |          3 |           5 |
|  9 |          3 |           6 || 10 |          4 |           8 |
+----+------------+-------------+

mysql> select article_id,group_concat(category_id order by category_id asc) from `article_in_category` group by article_id;
+------------+----------------------------------------------------+| article_id | group_concat(category_id order by category_id asc) |
+------------+----------------------------------------------------+|          1 | 1,2,3                                              |
|          2 | 3,4,5                                              |
|          3 | 1,5,6                                              ||          4 | 8                                                  |
+------------+----------------------------------------------------+4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> show global variables like '%group_concat_max_len%';
+----------------------+-------+| Variable_name        | Value |
+----------------------+-------+| group_concat_max_len | 1024  |
+----------------------+-------+

mysql> set global group_concat_max_len=2048;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)mysql> show global variables like '%group_concat_max_len%';
+----------------------+-------+| Variable_name        | Value |
+----------------------+-------+| group_concat_max_len | 2048  |
+----------------------+-------+